Opinion page editor Rick Holmes and other writers blog about national politics and issues. Holmes & Co. is a Blog for Independent Minds, a place for a free-flowing discussion of policy, news and opinion. This blog is the online cousin of the Opinion
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Opinion page editor Rick Holmes and other writers blog about national politics and issues. Holmes & Co. is a Blog for Independent Minds, a place for a free-flowing discussion of policy, news and opinion. This blog is the online cousin of the Opinion section of the MetroWest Daily News in Framingham, Mass. As such, our focus starts there and spreads to include Massachusetts, the nation and the world. Since successful blogs create communities of readers and writers, we hope the \x34& Co.\x34 will also come to include you.

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By Rob Meltzer

May 29, 2014
6:11 p.m.

Since I raised this topic on this blog a number of years ago, and predicted the reversal of John Connolly’s murder conviction in Florida on the same grounds that happened yesterday, I guess its a good time for a follow-up on this issue of prosecutorial abuse. To refresh the memory of the community, Connolly was convicted in the murder of John Callahan in 1982, and the allegation was that Connolly tipped off Whitey Bulger that Callahan was going to implicate him in a murder. Problem was, the case was clearly, clearly, clearly barred by the statute of limitations. So the prosecutor added a mitigating factor that circumvented the statute of limitations problem–he alleged that† Connolly committed this nefarious crime from 1500 miles away while in possession of a firearm, which creates a life-imprisonment no-time-bar offense. And what was the evidence of this possession of a firearm? Connolly was an FBI agent, and carried a firearm while on duty. I mean, its pretty clear that the weapons possession element is not intended and was not intended to include lawful possession of a firearm, and certainly not in circumstances like that. the weapons portion is there because the presence of the weapon makes the offense that much more heinous and frightening, therefore creating a greater sense of danger to the community of the felon. If you are involved in a fatal hit and run accident, the mere fact that you might be carrying a firearm holstered at the time is not a mitigating factor for a harsher term. And not for the Connolly case, either, by any stretch of the imagination. And yesterday the appeals court agreed. Great decision in a scary, scary case of overreach. The prosecutors pushed this case because they didn’t have whitey. The case was always politically motivated from the start–a chance to try and nail someone in a case not supported by law or fact. The prosecutors should drop this persecution, grateful that the appeals court saved them from themselves.